Monument Type(s):

• TUNNEL? (16th century to 17th century - 1500 AD? to 1699 AD?)
• DRAIN (Early 18th century to Late 19th century - 1700 AD? to 1899 AD?)

Summary

Brick lined drain running from Guildhall site.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA2003 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA5781 - 2003 assessment of the Guildhall site by Richard K Morriss

Description

A brick lined passage discovered in 1891, 3ft high, 2ft wide, excellent brickwork, Flemish bond, hard cement. Roof arched, floor slightly raised in the middle, fall of more than 3ft toward the river, no trace of water or sewage through it. Explored for 130ft, to where blocked in the vicinity of Newport House. Davies suggested it had been an escape route from the town house of the R Catholic Berrington family [PRN 10485] <1a>
Terminated by a plain rectangular opening in the wall and is brick lined internally . The floor appears by its gentle slope to be more appropriate to a post medieval drain than a passage <1b>
The "passage" has an opening 0.8m wide and 1.3m. High, approx 1.0m above the present ground level. It is brick lined with a vaulted roof, and has an 18th/19th c. appearance. See GP AO/60/231/1 passage entrance from E. <1d><1>

Davies [<1a>] quotes from MSS. in the Reference Library details of the subway, the entrance to which, north of the postern, was accidentally discovered in June 1891, when the pressure of timber laid against the wall caused the stonework to cave in. "It is situate 35feet north of the postern door, and seven feet above the surface of the ground. It is three feet high, and two feet wide. It is built of excellent brickwork, in the Flemish bond, with very hard cement. The roof is arched, but the bricks were not moulded for the purpose. The floor is slightly raised in the middle, unlike a drain, and although there is a fall of more than three feet towards the river, there is no trace of water or sewage ever having passed through it. It has been explored for 130 feet, and its present end is near the basement of Newport House, where it is blocked up with work of some later date. A branch to the left hand only extends a short distance". The use of the subway remains a mystery and Davies ventures a solution which, he admits, is mere conjecture. This is that the passage was made as a means of escape during times of religious persecution, from the town house of the Berringtons (a notable Roman Catholic family) which stood between St. Alkmund's Churchyard, and Dogpole. See SJ 41 SE 135 for Berrington House remains of. Davies offers what he considers the most serious objection to this theory, and that is that the work is so very extensive and so very well executed for a means of escape which would have had to be carried out secretly and hurriedly. <1c>

The passage is now blocked a few feet from its entrance in the retaining wall [PRN 62581]. A second blocked passage appears to lead off it just within the face of the wall and parallel to it. The passage was said by Davies to terminate 'within a few feet of the foundation wall' of the Guildhall, and the plan accompanying the written description shows it ending at the Guildhall 's SE corner [<2>]. If it is not associated with the present Guildhall basement of c.1700 it may possibly have been associated with the previous building, moved, when the Guildlhall (Newport House) was built, to the castle [PRN 10130]. A drain or culvert seems the most likely explanation of this monument, pending further investigation <3>

This feature was examined as part of a 2003 assessment of the Guildhall site. The entrance to the culvert, or tunnel, is less than 1m high and 1m wide. It meets the face of the wall at an angle, but its jambs seem cut to cope with this; they also appear to course into the external face of the revetment wall. The initial section of the culvert is topped by flat stone slabs. After about a metre, there is a vertical chute (strongly suggesting that this is indeed merely a drainage culvert), and, beyond that, the culvert is topped by a segmental brick arch. Although there are cracks in the side brickwork between the two main sections, these may be structural. The floor is of partially robbed stone slabs. Access further into the culvert is blocked after about 4m. There is nothing to clearly indicate the exact date, but the use of bricks clearly implies a post medieval structure. The nature of the junction with the revetment wall [ie PRN 62581] suggests that the two structures are contemporary. <4>

Sources

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